Fromes Hill

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I've been plummeting down the rabbit hole of the family tree today, having been prompted by ancestry.co.uk that they have some interesting stuff for me. I will follow up their line of enquiry in due course, but it reminded me that I have a lot of catching up to do on the Southall line. Oh, and I remembered that I hadn't solidified the Clun connection through my great-great aunt Lizzie properly yet. That is throwing up some conundrums, mostly centring on the peculiar moral codes of practice prevalent in those days. As I wrote before [blog post(s) passim], my dad's aunt turned out to be his sister, and it looks like a similar thing obtained on the other side of the clan, in this particular case.

In the 1861 Census, Elizabeth Southall is listed at my great-great-grandparent's then home on Snails Bank, in the parish of Bishop's Frome, Herefordshire, as their four-year-old daughter, along with her then siblings. By the 1871 census, there's no mention of her in the village [more later, when I've done a lot more digging], but she turns up in Clun, Shropshire, at The White Horse Inn, as a fourteen-year-old maidservant. The path she took from birth to this position is what's challenging me at the moment, but I have a pretty good idea what transpired to get her there.

The household at the White Horse that year comprised the Clun-born landlord and his wife, also Elizabeth; also born in the parish of Bishop's Frome, and of whom there's no mention in the census' of either '61 or '71 at my great-great-grandparent's then residences: which begs a couple of questions, which, subject to material confirmation, I think know the answer to. A little voice in the back of my mind is telling me that I've seen documentary evidence of another Southall residence in a small hamlet close to Fromes Hill, but I've since lost track of the information. However, I think I'll be able to tie up the last few loose ends, and I'll let you know as soon as I do: and I'll let you in on my theory about the events that led to my ancestor Lizzie (Senior, in this case) owning not only one of my favourite pubs, but a good chunk of The Square, Clun, too. Keep you posted...


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